So i was looking through my old cd's and I came across this and suddenly remembered how great it was...the sound on this show is phenomenal...is this soundboard?
anyway this is when i first got into sci and listening to this old show reminds me of why...they are so good

=

I am not one to listen to many other bands these days only because after years and years AND YEARS of following the Dead. I found I to got bored easy with new acts. Now that said This band knows how to dig deep and jam. I dont care what the guy way down on this review had to say. Am one to listen for myself. SCI you ROCK very intense cant get ENOUGH

word up 2 Jon 'O.
the Beatles set is Awesome... remember.

love this show but not sure why anyone would have attended with Big Cypress and all... ha ha i kid, i kid

wow i think comfortador must be one of the dumbest persons I have personally ever read about. I didn't know there are people out there that are actually this stupid and ignorant. Now about the show, excellent piece of musicianship throughout, just when I think I like older cheese more I come back to 98-99 and it blows my mind all over again, thanks cheese.

Wow. Um. Er, uh, so. Most bands worthy of a listen these days did not go out and have their birthing in the middle of the 1960's Acid Tests.

Those around long enough to know recall that the Dead did not spring forth fully formed as the Lord Zeus Jamutronulator Incarnate in 1967.

Check the boards, the most avidly praised era for that band is between late 72 and mid 75, ( I'm partial to 74 myself ).

They evolved. So did Phish. Ever listen to really early Phish boards from 90? And then from 93?

Or moe. Compare those funky old 93 boards to a mere four years later. Or 98? Stellar year.

SCI boards from 99 render a band in evolution. You're not likely to get the same epic jammy-ness from a 99 board that you'll get from a 2004 download.

I enjoy trolling the older shows precisely to get older raw SOUNDBOARDS. I do not care one tinker's fart for the 'energy' of screaming kids hootling their best impressions of a Wahabi Estrus Yawp. It's the music I care about and it's the music people support.

An old Dead Head taught me a valuable lesson a long time ago. Coming out of a mid 80's show, I lamented, "If the play Truckin' one more time I'm gonna puke!" The Old Head passing by said, "Did you happen to hear that little groove they did after the second chorus? So insane - gotta get a tape of that..."

Oh, look - a squirrel!

An amazing band.

Musical genius.

True, early Cheese lacked the amount of exploratory nature found at most Phish and Grateful Dead shows (I compare the three because those are the three bands I listen to about 95% of my listening time.) But they did remember to include that aspect of music at every Incident (also this Incident.) Not quite as much as Phish and the Grateful Dead but, enough.

Cheese, I think, as a result of Nershi’s influence, concentrated mainly on creating the perfect aesthetic experience. Most of the time, too much exploratory nature, in music, is not a good ingredient. Face it. Most people at these shows are in a psychedelic state of mind. Speaking from experience, I have flipped out (got in trouble) at two Phish shows but I never once flipped out at Cheese. If you come seeking the perfect aesthetic experience over exploratory music then Cheese is for you.

Once the almost perfect aesthetic experience, which included the “happy’go’lucky” nature of the lyrics, the vast array of musical styles, the not quite there visual aspect, the perfect traveling community, and most importantly the brilliant classical and technical expertise (especially Kang and Hollingsworth) of the band, was created they were able to focus more on exploratory music and the finishing touch on their visual aspect which was a giant diamond shaped plasma screen which would later on become three screens in the shape of an eye in their last tour.

Overwhelming evidence of the exploratory nature of Cheese can be found throughout 2005-2008(when the band felt it was safe.) This combined with everything else had meant that Cheese, not the Grateful Dead, nor Phish, had created the perfect aesthetic experience. Cheese also rode out their peek for the three years and decided to end on a high note. Another thing the Grateful Dead and Phish were not able to do.

To Comfortador two reviews ahead of me. SCI doing a cover of Beatles Abbey Road is cool. They are doing a piece of music that the Beatles never tried to tackle live. This is going out on a limb. "Aint nobody messing with you but you, your friends are most concerned". If you had a bad time at SCI shows its because of the vibe you brought with you. Im into the GD like you and all I can say is each person had a good time or liked the show depending on the attitude they bring. Dude come on, I read your review of Warren Zevon. Ahoooo, werewolves of London, how sophisticated. I saw Warren Zevon booed of the stage because he was so drunk.

While the guy below me is entitled to his opinion, everyone with 1/2 a brain knows he is an idiot.

I haven't even listened to this show, but String Cheese is one of the better live bands of our time. How is bluegrass mixed with jazz, funk and rock not experimental or creative enough?

The lyrics may not be profound, but I don't know how you can call them childish either.

I've never taken any psychedelics, but I have been to multiple SCI shows and each one is better than the last.

As for this set...The sound quality is great and SCI puts on another amazing show.

I'm tired of people pretending this band's music is good.

The reason people have such intense trips at the shows is a testament to the power of the mass psychedelic experience and has nothing to do with the band. The reason it never took off to the next level - in addition to their musical limitations - is that there was no one in the band with real shamanic power. So the audience was left more or left spinning its wheels. But since people are amazing, they found their own way, but then mistakenly attributed it to this gang of chumps!

Now *that* is irony.

I got in free on the list to this dismal occasion and stuck it out as long as I could. Every time I thought the music had reached a peak of crappitude it got worse, just as it was at every SCI show I went to (usually bc I was bored and got in free, or because there were other, actually interesting bands on the bill).

They don't improvise in any interesting or meaningful way.

They have no power musically. They can get kinda wound up in their endless, repetitive circles, but they never do anything with it.

Their lyrics are terrible - pretentious childish cliches or just silliness. I like silliness, but not as the defining feature of psychedelic music.

I had it on cassette back in the day, then on CDR, and now it's been DL'd to my iPod, and is forever archived in my library as an mp3 file. It's one of those "essential" shows, y'know? Great night, great sound, great show before SCI got too big and the fun went out of Incidents...sigh.

Love,

Jac in Tucson
db.etree.org/tucsondeadhead
tucsondeadhead@yahoo.com

I agree with everybody: great show, great sound quality, download it now, etc.

Way back on on November 17, 2004, reviewer dsieburgh asked for clarification thus:
"One question: Not sure what the three tracks after the encore are. Setlist.com and Friends of Cheese do not list anything. Please enlighten."

Actually, it's the final FOUR tracks and I wonder too: what ARE they? Where are they from? Why are they here? This same show in lower quality 128 KB/sec Constant bit rate MP3 on nugs.net doesn't have them.

I think the answer is in the text file here. before the last four tracks, it says "FILLER: Jamie Janover, 12/28/99, Vancouver, BC."

My best guess is the last 4 tracks are from a show by Jamie Janover on 12/28/99 in Vancouver, BC and were included here by the kind soul who has provided us with this great recording as filler for a fourth CD. He probably chose material by Jamie Janover because, according to the notes here, along with The SCI, also the "Entire show with Jamie Janover on percussion." So for whatever reason, we have been provided these additional tracks to fill out a fourth CD.

I surmised the above using only information provided right here, but I know none of that for sure. Clarification from someone actually involved with this material would be awesome!

I personally am going to save the last four tracks under "Jamie Janover, 12/28/99, Vancouver, BC," not SCI on 12-31-1999 in Portland, unless I find out otherwise, but it's nothing to make a fuss about. I am glad that this recording has been made available to all of us and have no complaints!

Great sound quality, great energy, great sound quality, great songs, great sound quality, and great Beatles.

Decent sound quality.

Listening to this for second time through and it is amazing. Great sound quality and asmokin' show.

One question: Not sure what the three tracks after the encore are. Setlist.com and Friends of Cheese do not list anything. Please enlighten.

Thanks for the show!

this is one of the greatest cheese shows ever. great energy and great jams. get it!

This is a great show, and an excellent way to wrap up the millenium. Download and enjoy! IF YOU HAVE NOT DOWNLOADED THIS SHOW YET, GET IT NOW.